Being Latino, the largest online Latino community on Facebook, and The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts announced on December 30 the creation of a “joint impact project to address the glaring absence of Latinos on television and in film.”
In a letter to David Rubenstein, Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leslie Moonves, President/CEO of the CBS Corporation, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the trustee of the John F. Kenndy Presidential Library and Museum, both organizations encouraged that the Kennedy Center seriously consider Latino performers for their 2011 honors.
We hope that this is the last year that Latinos are absent as honorees on your show.
Being Latino’s Facebook membership has over 52,000 members on Facebook, actively engaging and interacting with members on several key issues central to US Latinos. The Being Latino blog has one of the higher Alexa ratings for a Latino-themed blog.
The mission statement of the NHFA (join them on Facebook) states:
Actors Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales and Sonia Braga, along with attorney Felix Sanchez, created the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts in 1997 to advance the presence of Latinos in the media, telecommunications and entertainment industries. The Foundation has concentrated on increasing access for Hispanic artists and professionals while fostering the emergence of new Hispanic talent.
Eighteen other Latino organizations, including the National Council of La Raza and the National Institutue for Latino Policy, supported the letter.
A full PDF of the letter can be viewed here: Being Latino Blog.
We applaud this very proactive and positive effort to acknowledge Latino performers, and we hope something good comes out of it.
Franky Benítez 
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